


The Literal Princess

by PRlNCESS_CADENCE



Series: Loud Lovers [1]
Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28685037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PRlNCESS_CADENCE/pseuds/PRlNCESS_CADENCE
Summary: Lori has feelings for her sister that she's been trying to keep hidden. What's going to happen, though, when the family tattletale finds out?
Relationships: Lori Loud/Lola Loud
Series: Loud Lovers [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2102520
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7





	The Literal Princess

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my series to ship the oldest 10 Loud siblings.

The door slammed behind her, finally giving her a moment to exhale a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in as her back slid down to a sitting position against the wooden frame. It was a bigger chore than she thought it would be to get Leni out of her room, but thank goodness Lori knew about the mall doing a special on twenty dollar dresses. Well, it wasn’t really much of a special seeing as how the dresses at the mall were always sold at twenty dollars, but Leni didn’t need to know that part.

“Ahem,” a more high-pitched voice rang out, quickly ending the older girl’s brief moment of reprieve. Once Lori looked up from her knees, she saw a younger girl with her arms folded, scowling at her from eye level across the room. “You mind telling me what this is all about? I have important business to attend to right now.”

The older girl ran her hand down her face in exhaustion. “Lola, you’re literally six years old. What business could you _possibly_ have that’s so important?”

“I should be asking _you_ that! That was a mean trick to play on Leni, by the way.”

“Oh, whatever! You’re one to talk about playing tricks on people.”

The younger sister raised an eyebrow. “Sooooo. You came to bargain, huh?”

The elder sister rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t tell anyone about that thing you heard me talking with Leni about earlier.”

“What thing? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lori tilted her head in confusion, silently wondering if Lola was playing innocent or if she legitimately hadn’t heard what Lori had discussed with Leni earlier, but once she noticed the small, smug smile on Lola’s face, her eyebrows furrowed in aggravation.

“Yes, you do!” Lori shouted, getting back up to her feet and pointing an accusatory finger towards her younger sibling. “Seriously, Lola. If anyone in this family finds out what I said, I’ll literally die.”

The younger sister shrugged. “You had no problem telling Leni.”

“Because Leni knows how to keep her mouth shut!”

“Huh. Well, maybe you should learn how to be more like her, then.”

It was becoming blatantly obvious that the younger sister wasn’t going to just let the issue slide without collateral, so pinching the bridge of her nose, Lori let out a deep sigh and quietly muttered, “Alright. What do you want?”

“I wanna know who you two were talking about.”

“WHAT?!”

Lori placed her hand to her chest, feeling her heartbeat accelerate to twice--no, _three times_ \--its normal pace, but her panic just made Lola smile wider. Lola knew that she had the upper hand, that she had more leverage in the negotiation, but she was the _last_ one in the family who could know about Lori’s secret. Heck, dying sounded like the better option at this point. Maybe it would be better if Lola just told everyone after all. At least that way, nobody would know the specifics, even if it did end up ruining her relationship with literally her entire family.

Lori folded her arms with a confident stare. “No,” she said sternly. “Think of something else.”

“Oh, come on! Was it Lincoln?”

“Eww! No way!”

Lori grimaced immediately. It was a knee jerk reaction, but she quickly realized that by denying the accusation, she was just giving Lola more information, which the younger sister had no doubt picked up on. With a smile forming on her face, Lola folded her arms and tapped her bottom lip as she looked up towards the ceiling.

“Let’s see…” Lola murmured pensively. “It’s not Lincoln. It’s probably not Leni. I _hope_ it’s not Lily.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not Lily.”

Giving Lola that much information wouldn’t be a problem. If she ended up telling the whole family, it would be better that they at least knew that much.

“Wait. Luna?!”

“Lola, I’m not telling. Now think of something else. Do you have anywhere you want me to drive you or something?”

“I knew it! It’s Luna! I’ve gotta hand it to you, you really keep your cards close to your chest, don’t you?”

Lori slapped her hand to her face. No, it wasn’t Luna, but maybe if she just said it was, this whole charade would be over. Lola would go on believing whatever she wanted to believe, and this way she wouldn’t go blabbing to the whole family that Lori had--

“Waaaaaiiiit a second,” the younger began. “That doesn’t sound right either.”

“Ugh. What is it this time?”

“That’s not embarrassing enough. It’s gotta be someone else.”

Seriously? She was just going to give up on that theory because it wasn’t _embarrassing_ enough? In Lola’s defense, she was right, but the logic she used to come up with that answer was beyond stupid.

Lori pinched the bridge of her nose again. “It’s Luna. Now, can you promise not to tell anyone?”

Just as soon as she thought she was in the clear, however, the younger sister squinted her eyes, examining Lori all over, making the older sister flinch uncomfortably.

“Hmm… No, you’re lying. You have this thing you do when you lie.”

Lori blushed. Just how much attention did Lola pay towards her? “I do _not_ do a thing!”

“You pinch your nose whenever you wanna get something over with. You do it before all of Luna’s shows.”

Shoot! Hopefully Luna didn’t know that!

Well, at this point, Lori knew that it was only a matter of time before Lola eventually guessed right. Maybe if it took long enough, though, Lola would get bored and move onto something else. So long as she didn’t guess the right person, not only would Lori’s secret be safe from her family, but it’d also be safe from Lola, the last person she wanted to know… besides maybe their dad.

“OK,” Lori continued, “so it’s not Luna. I’m still not telling you who, though.”

Lola rubbed her chin with a soft “Hmm,” thinking deeply before her face lit up. “I know! Let’s turn it into a game!”

Lori folded her arms, raising an eyebrow. “A game?”

“Yup! Since you’re obviously not going to tell me, and I’d just get bored going around guessing everyone in our family until I got it right, we’ll play twenty questions! If I can’t get it right after twenty questions, then I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“Twenty? Yeah, right. Ten is the highest I’ll go.”

“Deal!”

Crap. She was hoping that Lola would keep arguing until she gave up, but now Lori was stuck playing some game that was literally going to end up being the death of her.

“Fine,” the older sister said, moving over to her bed, plopping herself down and pulling out her phone. “You only get to ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, though, and you’re not allowed to ask anything too specific.”

“What’s too specific?”

“Like, ‘Does she play guitar?’ or something like that.”

Lola shrugged her shoulders before walking over to Leni’s bed and sitting down, facing her sister. “You drive a hard bargain, kiddo, but OK.”

“...’Kiddo’?”

“First question! Is she older or younger than Lincoln?”

“Those questions are against the rules, remember?”

“Dang it. OK! _New_ first question! Is she older than Lincoln?”

Lori’s face never changed as she continued pressing buttons on her phone. “How do you know it’s a ‘she’? It could be dad, you know.”

“Answer the question, please.”

Finally, Lori’s thumbs stopped moving right as soon as she reflexively rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Younger.”

Lola pumped her fist. “Yes! OK, question two. Is she a twin?”

“Too specific.”

The younger sister put her hands to her hips. “How is that too specific?!”

“You’re literally narrowing it down to only two options. I let you cut the options in half already, but I’m not going to let you do it again.”

“Hmm… I guess that’s fair. That means it’s either Lisa, me, Lana or Lucy.” Lori’s thumb twitched upon hearing her sister go over the correct option, which she secretly hoped Lola hadn’t noticed. “Then how about this? Is it true what you said about her?”

This time, Lori’s entire hand flinched, causing her to inadvertently drop her phone onto her chest, making her flinch in pain. “Hang on. I still don’t know what you heard me say to Leni. I’ll tell you the answer if you tell me the specifics.”

“Duh. I heard everything. You think you like her as more than just a sister and you daydream about her all the time and this one time you accidentally turned in an essay where you said you wanted to get married under the sunset with a--”

“OK! OK! I get it! You heard everything.” Lola then sat quietly, waiting for the answer, and after a long pause, Lori finally exhaled a deep breath and quietly replied, “Yeah. It’s all true.”

Lola’s mouth dropped. “Wow… Whoever it is, she sounds like a really lucky girl.”

Suddenly, Lori turned her head towards her younger sister, noticing the small smile on the younger girl’s face which Lori couldn’t help but mimic. “You think so?”

“Yeah.” Several seconds passed where the two sisters just smiled at each other. In all honesty, this was probably one of the few moments in their lives where they weren’t yelling at each other for some silly reason, but sadly, those moments were always brief, and this moment was no exception. “Now, let’s get back to our game, shall we?”

Lori rolled her eyes, picking up her phone again and putting all of her attention back onto her screen. “Sure. Keep going.”

“Question three! Does she like cats or dogs more?”

“Cats.”

“AHA! So it’s not Lana!”

Lori’s eyes went wide. “Hey!” the elder sister exclaimed, putting her phone down and turning over with a glare. “That doesn’t count! That wasn’t a yes or no question!”

“Then you shouldn’t have answered it.”

Lori bit her lip. As much as she hated to admit it, she was responsible for breaking her own rules, and she couldn’t get mad at Lola for discovering a strategy around it. “Well, that counts as two questions, then!”

“Meh. I’ll take it. Question… five?”

“No, you’re on question six. This would normally be question four, and you used two questions with your last one.”

“...Waaaaait a second! That’s still question five! I may be bad at math, but you can’t trick me _that_ easily!”

It was still worth a shot.

“Now,” the younger sister continued, “question _five._ Do you think she’s pretty?”

“Seriously?” Lori turned her head to give her younger sibling a dull expression, but Lola simply stared back with a smug smile. It wasn’t a hard question to answer--they both knew that--but it still wasn’t easy to admit out loud, making Lori’s cheeks turn a soft shade of pink before she returned her attention to her phone. “Yeah, sure. Whatever. Just get to the next question.”

Lola waited several seconds, leaving an awkward silence where the only sound was the buzzing of Lori’s cell phone as she tapped away. Once Lola finally did speak up, however, she did so with a much softer tone in her voice. “Could I ask something else that’s worth two questions?”

“Like what?”

“Like… What do you _like_ about her?”

Suddenly, Lori stopped typing and turned her head to see Lola twiddling her thumbs together. She’d assumed that Lola would be trying to milk the situation for all it was worth, but Lori had forgotten the entire point of this game in the first place. The reason they were even discussing this was because Lola wanted to know about Lori’s life, because Lola didn’t want to feel left out, because Lola just wanted to be there for her as a sister, even if Lori didn’t want her to be.

And that was why Lori fell in love with her in the first place.

“Well,” the older sibling began, putting her phone down on the nightstand beside her, “I guess I like her because she’s more than just a sister to me.”

“Awwww.”

Lori shook her head with a blush. “You know how hard it is having ten siblings who drive you crazy. Nobody in the family is immune to that, but there’s one person I can think of who just… makes every day a little bit better. I love how she takes care of me just as much as I take care of her. I love how blunt she is, how confident she is, how she _literally_ makes every day brighter--”

“So it’s not Lucy, then.”

Lori quickly slapped her face in embarrassment. Was Lola planning that from the start, or did Lori seriously just make a mistake that stupid?

“What question are we up to now?” the younger asked.

“I don’t know,” Lori replied, still with her palm over her face. “Are we at question ten yet?”

“Hmm… I think we’re on eight or nine.”

“Let’s say nine. I think Leni will be home soon anyway.”

Lola put her hands to her hips. “You really think Leni will be back that quick? You _did_ tell her there was a sale, after all.”

“She only had ten dollars. She always asks if she has enough money to buy anything before she tries it on.”

“You know, for someone like Leni, that’s actually a surprisingly smart thing to do, but OK. This can be question nine. I just want to make sure I’m on the right track. So it’s either me or Lisa, right?” Lori opened her mouth to speak, but before she got the chance, Lola placed her finger onto her lips, silencing her just as she was about to give her answer. “And before you say it, no, that question is _not_ too specific. I asked a yes or no question, and I think that I’m allowed to know whether or not I’ve been right so far.”

Lola waited for Lori’s face to soften before removing her finger from her sister’s lips, and after a sigh, a moment of silence, and an aggravated groan, Lori finally turned towards Lola again and said, “Yeah. It’s between you two.”

“Wow… I’m gonna be honest with you sis, if you hadn’t already told me it wasn’t Lily, I’d be getting _pretty_ suspicious right about now.”

Again, Lori groaned. “Don’t worry. I promise I’m not in love with the baby. Now get on with your last question. I kinda want to be done now.”

Finally, the elder sister picked her phone back up and began tapping away, ready to either confirm the younger sister’s suspicions or have her drop it altogether. Even if Lola was a sore loser, she would never go back on a deal; she was smart enough to know that that would just backfire on her later. This meant that there was the possibility that Lola might not find out who Lori’s secret love interest was after all, and it could all go back to being a secret.

That was what Lori really wanted, for everything to go back to normal, because if Lola really did find out that Lori had a crush on her, it would ruin their relationship forever. If that happened, not only would Lori lose the girl she cared about most in the entire world, she could wind up hurting her whole family…

“Alright,” the younger began, making Lori inadvertently gulp nervously. “Last question.”

Lori could see Lola looking at her from her peripheral vision, but she did everything in her power to keep her poker face steady. She gripped her cellphone tighter, scrolling through her social media feed as fast as she could, hoping to her core that this last question wouldn’t ruin her life forever.

Why did she have to go and get a stupid crush on her stupid sister? Err, Lola, that is. Not Leni.

“Do you want her to love you back?”

Again, Lori’s eyes went wide. She wanted to turn her body to face her sister, but at this point, her body was frozen solid. She couldn’t even gulp down the lump in her throat because she was so busy trying to figure out how to even answer the question.

Of course she wanted Lola to love her back! As much as she loved rooming with Leni, there was no doubt that she’d prefer to spend every night with Lola, cuddling to sleep together, telling each other about their day, saying how much they loved each other in a way that a text message could never convey. 

If that was true, though, then why was Lori hesitating? Why couldn’t she move, let alone answer? Was she afraid of how Lola would answer back? No way. Lola still didn’t know it was her, after all. There was just as much of a chance of it being Lisa! Besides, even if Lola _did_ figure it out, she’d just tell her to get in line behind the rest of her suitors and it would all be over. Right?

“I…” Lori began, her mouth suddenly trembling. “I don’t know.”

Lola tilted her head in curiosity. “Really? How come?”

“I don’t know! Alright? Yes, I’m in love with her. Yes, I want to hold her, and kiss her, and get married under the sunset together, but she’s still my sister! Can you imagine what would happen if things didn’t work out? Can you imagine the look on her face if I said, ‘I’m in love with you’ and she didn’t feel the same way about me? What if it scarred her for life?! Can you see why I didn’t want you to find out now? Do you finally understand why I’ve been trying to keep it a secret?!”

Lori bit down on her lower lip, trying to hold back the tears beginning to well up in her eyes, but with all the emotions she was trying to keep in check, there was bound to be at least one that fell down her cheek. Before Lola could see, however, Lori flipped onto her stomach, burying her face into her pillow and trying not to let her breathing pattern stagger. She didn’t want to even look at Lola right now. It just... It hurt too much.

As much as she wanted Lola to leave so that she could cry it all out, though, Lola was never one to take others’ feelings too seriously. Then, suddenly, Lori felt something--or rather, some _one_ \--hop onto her back, causing her to instinctively growl.

“Lola, I’m LITERALLY going to kill you.”

“That’s a felony, you know.”

Why was she doing this? Did she know? Was she just playing with Lori at this point?! Before Lori could have an emotional outburst, however, Lola’s words caused the air within her to freeze inside her chest.

“But you know what? I don’t judge you. It sounds like it must be really tough to love someone and never be allowed to tell her. My whole life, I’ve wanted someone to love me like that, like I mean the whole world to them.”

“Your whole life?” Lori asked sarcastically, to which Lola put her hands to her hips in offense.

“Rude! Anyway, yeah. Whether the person you have feelings for is me or Lisa, either one of us would be lucky to have you as our secret admirer…”

Then, making all the air that had been frozen in Lori’s chest leave her lungs at once, her breath was suddenly taken away by the feeling of a pair of small, manicured hands reaching around her waist, pulling her into the tightest hug she’d ever felt.

“...and even more lucky to have you as a sister.”

At this point, there was no longer anything Lori could do to prevent the tears from pooling out of her eyes. Her entire strength had been robbed, her entire emotional fortress having been plundered and burned to the ground with a few small words and the feeling of a hug. It was such a simple gesture, something she got from her sisters every day, but this time it was different, it meant just a little bit more.

“Lola,” the elder said between sobs, “I love you so much.”

“I know,” the younger said, rubbing her cheek against her sister’s hair. “I love you too, Lori.”

Lori then wrapped her hands around her waist, feeling her younger sister’s hands holding onto her and slowly cupped her palms over Lola’s fingers. Then, they both just laid there, Lola laying on top of Lori as Lori laid face down on her bed, trying not to ruin her pillow with tears and mascara. Even if Lori was scared, even if she was nervous that her secret was revealed and that she’d have to either drop her feelings for Lola or go into hiding and never come out, she could at least give herself the permission to feel at peace right here, right now.

It was the best feeling in the world, and she got to spend it with literally the best sister she could ever ask for.

“KIIIIIDS! IT’S TIME TO COME DOWN FOR DINNER! Oh, honey, have you seen Leni? I can’t seem to find her anywhere…”

Neither one moved, both afraid of being the one to end their magic moment, although Lori was pretty sure that she was the one dreading it more. Once Lola finally pulled her hands away, though, making her sister’s heart twinge with a hint of sadness, the elder slowly sat up as Lola hopped down to the floor. What would happen now? Was it time to just go back to normal? Pretend it never happened?

“Hey, Lola…”

“Don’t worry,” the younger said, smiling up at her sister. “I won’t tell anyone about your secret, _especially_ Lisa.”

Lola threw in a wink at the end, which Lori couldn’t help but smile at. Whether things went back to normal or not, she was happy that it sounded like she’d be able to enjoy the process, no matter what happened.

“Thanks, Lola. You’re the best.”

“Duh! Now come on! We’re having chicken nuggets for dinner!”

Before she had even finished her sentence, though, she quickly grabbed Lori by the hand, pulling her off of her bed and lunging towards the door. Their fingers interlocked.


End file.
